I will have scars this week! The skin is being treated, and also I have had some (unrelated) blood tests, let's hope everything is alright. I have also run on the track at interclub for the first time for 15 or 16 years; a rather humbling experience. The 3000m time (under 12 mins) was OK for me as a 58 year old but no other similar runners were there: who wants to join me next time?

song of the week: Evermore – Know It’s True, from "Dreams"

Moonlight shines down in raysFire I see in your gaze

And I know it’s true, believe it too, can feel it tooAnd it’s clear to me, no fantasy, reality

As a child I had a dreamI saw a bird with broken wingsI woke up

And I know it’s true, believe it too, can feel it tooAnd I know it’s near, I’ve felt it here, ‘cause it’s in the air

Tonight, to feel aliveWe try againTonight, to be alive, to live insideWe die againA sign, in your eyesOh, a fire will rise again

It’ll take you over, and it’ll burn away tonight…

You have been warned

last word“He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot” – Groucho Marx

Friday, 27 October 2006

quote of the day: "What is to give light must endure burning." -- Victor Frankl

My favourite song, "Light Surrounding You" by Evermore, quoted under the banner, has entered the Australian charts at number 8 this week, so its video clip will be on "Rage" early tomorrow morning (as well as "Video Hits" etc. I guess). Can't wait to see the clip. (edit - about 7:20 am or so, on ABCTV)

On 24 July I said “you the reader range in years from 12 (I believe) to 76 (I believe)”. I can update that now! The lower number has moved from 12 to 13, ah how time does pass. The higher number would have moved by now to 77 except I forgot two who are regular readers and neither of them let on they were older! Keith, you’re now 80; but my mum wins the race; she turned 81 this month. So you the reader now range from 13 to 81. And happy birthday to speedyJarod, six years old tomorrow. Don't think Jarod's a reader yet though.

Another great track meet last night; colder and blusterier than the previous week, the weather didn't stop me from taking eight more seconds off my 3k time and run 11:31, with quite a big negative split. I have "only" 16 more seconds to improve to attain my target time, and two months to do it.

Great running from Katie winning her heat of the 800m in fine style, also Colin tearing away in the 3000m for clear second.

Thursday, 26 October 2006

Monday I said, after the umpteenth phone call about unrelated subjects, "I’ve got too many hats; in too many pies"

Still, it's my choice to do so much "when I am supposed to be retired".

Far far better to be busy than to be bored.

I always review my priorities at the end of the year (sort of akin to new year resolutions, although the only thing I really resolve is to "commit to less".)

On the training and competing front this year, to take the pressure off, a mid year decision was to treat many "races" as tempo runs. And when (if!) all the indicators are favorable (weight lower; training consistent; niggles at bay), pick an upcoming race and go for it.

It seems to be working; I have run two successive BBQ Stake 6k's both in 26.53, on days when most struggled with heat and/or breeze, I felt comfortable and still finished in the middle of the (handicapped) field. And I haven't succumbed to new injuries or aggravated old ones (yet!)

So I will continue taking the pressure off by running at 80-90% effort in all my races, and who knows, by January I may be in a position to loosen the reins.

Time for a mathematics joke.

At New York's Kennedy airport today, an individual, later discovered to be a public school teacher, was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a setsquare, a slide rule, and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement.

He is being charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.

"Al-gebra is a fearsome cult, "Gonzales said. They desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search of absolute value.

They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y' and refer to themselves as unknowns, but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, "There are three sides to every triangle."

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes."

The Brindabella Classic, "Australia's Premier downhill race", was on yesterday, see strewth’s blog for a write up. Strewth calls Aki the “Speedy Gosling”. Ha Ha HA. There are a few very sore bodies who won't be along to training tonight. However I will be there, early as usual.

My training progresslast week's target: n/a, actual 50k

this week’s target: 80kweight: 64kg and steady

I was pretty slack last week. One new thing, I went out to track on Saturday afternoon to watch some of the interclub program. As expected the 1500s were quicker than at Vets. There are some kids I could be up with at the end. They all start too fast though and would be 100m ahead of me by half way. So when I can, I will run, maybe this Saturday is possible, and remember not to start too fast. And I like the design of the new Norths singlets, I will get one.

So this week I will run BBQ Stakes, Vets track, and ACTA track as well if I have time.

song of the week: 2+2=5 – Radiohead, from "Hail To The Thief". I have been listening to Radiohead, Keane, Evermore, Delirious and Chris Tomlin this week.

happy birthday: Colin Farlow turns 45 tomorrow. A tough new age group Col!

wedding bells: Joel and Yelena leave on Wednesday this week for Peru, to get married. The wedding date is 1pm in Lima 0n 4 November, which is 3am on the 5th our time . They will be back in Canberra on Sunday 12th November.

Watch it. I am a venomous banana eater. Don't cross me when I am in a race!

I ask myself the following Qs: why do people intentionally run alongside one another in track races making it impossible to pass them? And why did I let myself get upset when I was charging around the track on Thursday night in the 4 lap spiral and, on three occasions, was expected to move out wide to pass people who were running two abreast who should know better?

If faster runners are coming through there is no need to move out; hugging the inside works fine. BUT courtesy dictates the need to at least run in single file except when passing.

All three pairs I passed were doing it deliberately.

I suppose it is inconsistent of me to ask them to mind their Ps and Qs while I don't. Well, I passed the first pair on the outside muttering "single file please!" I passed the second pair by pushing between them, saying "don't run next to each other!" And the third pair I ducked through on the inside, yelling "single file, PLEASE!"

Sorry, I will shut up next time.

Feeling cut?

Friday, 20 October 2006

on trackLast night I completed the 3000m in 11:39 taking it fairly easy. Only once last season did I run faster than that in any race (11.23). So a very good start, compares with a 12.29 first up 12 months ago. Looks like my 3000m target for 2006 (which I recently revised from 11:10 back to 11:15) is likely.

QR - Queensland Rail, off track.

Here’s where the Queensland tilt train tilted too far a couple of years back. Apparently it was moving at double the authorised speed for that section of track. It makes me wonder how fast you should try to run at the oval at Parliament House on Monday! Its circumference is 200m if you run within an arm’s length from the edge; according to Mr Flibble.

So the lesson to be learned here is, don't train too fast.

back on trackThere were many brilliant performances last night, lots of people and many new faces. All time pbs included Pam, Helen and Katie in the 1500. I see the ACTVAC website is being prepared for the 06-07 season, so full details will be available very soon.

"train"; get it?

Thursday, 19 October 2006

metre readerWearing my *very bright* orange and black shirt today, I glanced out the window to see a young man on my front deck with the exact identical shirt except for the words "meter reader" in bold on the back, doing his thing. My first thought was that he had misspelt "metre". I must be writing too much about running.

bolt from the bluefrom the Canberra Times: "An elderly man with a heart condition was shocked when a bolt from a Boeing jet flying overhead plunged through the roof of his Sydney home..."I thought the story might have been about Carlton supporters deserting the club...

QPno NO, not the doll, the quarter pounder. Symbol of all things fat. The obese species is taking over the world. Fortunately we can out-run them.

2 degreesThat's the latest minimum forecast for Sunday morning. It will be colder than that at the start of the Brindabella run. Good luck.

See you at the track today.

Wednesday, 18 October 2006

Monday at Parliament House was the start of our summer season training. After the usual warm-up jog, I got the group to run a fast kilometre, including three chin-ups on the way round the loop; then 30 sit-ups on the oval, six 200 meter runs with only 100m recoveries, then we did some starting practice, which was a lot of fun. Observation - if runners wear watches to time themselves, they lose a lot of time at the start! So my wise advise was to hand your watch to a friend before the start. Actually I can just see runners this season starting their garmins so they can analyse later how far around the track is and how much the elevation varies.

After eight days non-enforced non-running I could not move! something akin to sciatica was killing my lower right calf right from the start, even though I commenced at a very slow jog.

I was 90% better yesterday and a few more days of light running should see the pain subside.

next a 3000mAnd so to track tomorrow. Aki, I do plan to step into the great unknown and run at interclub occasionally. I don't mind "pacing" a 5k there at your pace if you want to try it too.

not a dog

p.s. Today it was 21 degrees at 8am, a strong north/west wind, with real rain! This is not the Canberra I know.

Monday, 16 October 2006

this week’s target: 80k or so, whatever I can manageweight: 64kg and creeping upwards – only because I didn’t run last week, and had very large breakfasts. No worries there.

Consistent with persistent rumours, normal service has been resumed. I am back from holidays and looking forward to rediscovering my routine. (sleep in; breakfast; write a post for this blog; lunch; post lunch siesta; off for a run; dinner; a few wines; an episode of 'allo 'allo, and bed)

coming eventsMon 16 October 20065:30 pm Parliament House Team Moore weekly training, or 4:30 pm for early starters who would like a longer run. Meet at the underground car park; no cost.

Tue 17 October 20069:00 am Veterans weekly Tuesday group, Black Mountain Peninsula. Most participants walk, jog or run for about an hour. Morning tea, and celebrations of any birthdays, follow. A friendly and informal group.

final footy footnote. While in Adelaide, the SANFL had their grand final (a week after the AFL one). I was overjoyed that my beloved Eagles won the premiership. These Eagles are the West Torrens ones, not the West Coast ones that won the AFL the previous week. I have followed Torrens for 50 years now, and it is thirteen years since their last premiership and a long, long time since their previous one. It was doubly satisfying as (a) Centrals were the hot favourites (b) Centrals had won the premiership the previous 3 years, flogging the Eagles for 2 of them and also in the minor rounds, and in the semis (c) staying where I was in Elizabeth I was in Centrals heartland. It was a 17 goals to 7 victory. Up the Eagles!

Sunday, 15 October 2006

Geoff's readers will be pleased to know he's returning to civilisation tomorrow.

I'm just home from the first track meeting of the season - the "Come and Try It" day out at Bruce. I was a bit neglectful in writing down times for all of Team Moore as my other job was to watch some of the kids from Calwell running. I guess Geoff will fill in the details.

In the 800m Roger ran about 2:40 while Katie was not far behind in 2:49. Roger also did well in the High Jump clearing at least 1.3 metres. Ken, Maria and Aki didn't run - they were all happy to provide moral support from the stands. Neil was busy as usual in his capacity as an official.

In the 3000m, Kathy ran within 5 seconds of the Australian Record for a W50 with 10:49.6. Not only that, she actually won the race outright, leaving such stars as Roger, Kevin and Katie far behind. Katie ran what I thought was a pretty good 3000m, unleashing her trademark 'last 50 metre' sprint to tie with Peter Strangman in about 12:30.

Aki was almost talked into running the 3000 but she had to leave early as the rent had expired on her borrowed car.

The conditions were quite good - not too hot and just a little swirling breeze to contend with. The meet was over in an hour and a half - how good is that!

Wednesday, 11 October 2006

Official times, which have only just been posted, are:Richard Faulks: 3:09.18Peter Kenna: 3:37.43 (debut marathon – now planning to run Canberra 2007)Gabrielle Brown: 4:10:47Pam Faulks: 4:20.19Annemarie Calnan: 4:53.35 (debut marathon – says its her one and only!)

Unfortunately Alan Green, who had also planned to run, was kept out with an injury. However, he was a great support in the lead up and on the day. On Saturday he drove us over the course, sharing his experiences from previous Melbourne Marathon runs, and on Sunday he was on his bike cheering us on at different sections. Not only did I have him by my side for the whole of the approx. 4km climb up St Kilda Road to the finish line, but throughout the run I benefited from the drive on the previous day – knowing when to expect the hills etc.

I had originally planned to run with the 4hr 30min pacing group, but once the race started felt strong enough to run it alone. My hastily devised plan B was that if the pacing group caught me, I would then try to hang on and still make it in on target. I had a bad patch just after half way, but other than that had a dream run. Unlike the Canberra Marathon, when you kept me company during my walk/run/walk sections, I didn’t need to walk at all (apart from through the drink stations). I took gels every 45 minutes, and drank at every drink station but the last one, and this seemed to work well. I am sure the gels helped me mentally if nothing else – each time I tore another one off (they were pinned to my tights), I knew that I had completed another segment of the run and was that much closer to the finish line.

Melbourne was true to its reputation and turned on 4 seasons in one day, but mostly, to our advantage. They held us at the start line for about 15mins after the scheduled start time, during which time the sun vanished, the clouds came over, the wind came up, and the rain fell down. But after that we benefited from a tail wind for a lot of the time, with a head wind for only short bursts.

The crowd was great, with lots of encouragement and cheers. Some people were handing out snakes and jelly beans, while a Cool Running group, someone near St Kilda, gave me a lemonade ice block that, as it was heating up by then, was perfect!

It reminded me of one of the better runs I had in America. We were staying at Ashland in Oregon. I was out doing an easy jog through one of the city parks which suddenly turned into a very fast run when I saw the following sign:

CAUTION!!

Bear Sighted in the Area

If you encounter a bear:

Avoid direct eye contract [sic] with the bear.

If a bear stands on its hind legs, it is trying to detect scents and is not neccessarily behaving aggressively.

Give the bear a way to escape. Step off trail and slowly walk away.

If you see bear cubs, steer clear and leave the area.

Stay calm. Do not run or make sudden movements. Back away slowly as you face the bear.

Tuesday, 10 October 2006

Geoff is on the road again and out of touch with civilisation. Yes, he's travelling without a laptop through one of those remote Australian locations that lacks internet access.

Sadly I can't give a report on Monday's training session at Parliament House because I wasn't there. My calf injury has returned. I was at Parly House the previous Monday along with three others. I think that's the smallest 'class' since that dismal day at North Lyneham when the rain bucketed down. I remember Trevor was already 'in it' so a few of us joined him for some slippery and 'fun' running on the muddy clay of the ridge.

I've borrowed this cartoon from Scott Brown's blog. I find myself saying that about every runner I see as inactivity has resulted in my carrying an extra 5 kilos to all training sessions.

Sunday, 8 October 2006

Jarod "Dash" Falconer, grandchild three of nine, this morning blitzed the under sixes at a regional Little Athletics carnival in Illawarra. He took home six medals, and set new records in the U6 100m and 300m, winning the 300m by 100. Looks like he is following in speedygrandad's footsteps. He has only been doing little athletics for about three weeks.

Saturday, 7 October 2006

We visited some wineries today, surprisingly little traffic on a lovely breezy 28 degree Saturday in Adelaide. We ended up with some great bargains! Everything seems to be on special here. None of the wineries we visited had we seen before, although we have dropped in occasionally to others in the past. Chateau Barrosa (note spelling) was irresistible with incredible extensive Rose Gardens complete with ponds and seven geese; plus motel, swimming pool, restaurant, antique museum and bargain basement cellar door meant we will be back there again next time! We restricted ourselves to a dozen mixed reds and some orange liqueur; next time the turkish delight version may win us over but they all looked good! Around the corner Yaldara Estate (of McGuigan wines, our favourite reds) meant more purchases, where we rested by a lake and I am obliged to mention another friendly goose who came up and made our acquaintance.

Tomorrow is the Melbourne marathon - good luck to Pam and Richard - I hope to hear a report of what the course was like in case I decide to run it in '08 or '09. I think though, a marathon any later than August is risking fate with the weather.

Go goose go gander.

Friday, 6 October 2006

Continuing the “speedy” theme: We went to my favourite SA restaurant last night, “Fasta Pasta” in Gawler. Even though we arrived at the tail end of a rush, we had a table, service, and food immediately. And no “fast food”, but an excellent Italian meal. Enhanced by local (ie Barossa Valley) wine, a bottle of delicious Wolf Blass red.

A group of us having a go, together in the same race, possibly with a pacer, brings a better chance of success than each of us going it alone.

Weather: Yesterday it was officially 38 degrees here in Elizabeth. But mid afternoon, the temperature dropped from 38 to 16 in about ten minutes flat. No dramas no gales not even any rain; just a simple shift from a northerly wind to a southerly.

Wednesday, 4 October 2006

It’s 37 degrees outside the office where I am typing this… I decided not to run today. That’s the best day to day plan I think, schedule something every day and when the weather turns fowl, have the day off.

This goose is cooked!

I would like to find a goose mascot for summer. I bought a soft toy pelican at Renmark and named him Murray the Pelican, he looks great, but we need a goose.

This heat brings back memories of track at 6pm in daylight saving time at Bruce, trying to race 3k with a hot northerly.

Playing it by ear seems (at my age) to be the best way to approach races now. I seem to have gotten overly anxious about achieving some of the targets I have set, and consequently have done a lot worse in “big” races recently compared with low key ones. This is so opposite to thirty years ago when I would always seem to lift for the big races! Maybe it’s because there have been too many big races on my calendar, but anyway for next season I would like to adopt the low key approach for everything, as many other runners seem to do and get away with.

Of course as a coach I have the challenge of bringing some of the runners “up” for their races, while others need calming down. In my own case the problem is having sufficient time to warm-up and mobilise ancient joints, muscles and tendons, while keeping the mind calm for all that time.

So for a change I will try an on-going low key approach and see if it helps. You will notice that (a) I will announce my goals to achieve during the season, while at the same time (b) when I race I will adopt a suck-it-and-see approach, no time goal.

And early in the season, softly softly.

Tuesday, 3 October 2006

Adelaide continues to be fine and sunny, it will be 26 degrees today which probably means 28 degrees here in Elizabeth. I managed another 14k or so yesterday and again today, and when I get back to my home PC, I will get into the mapping software and post a map of where I am running.

I think I will run the 3000m the first night of track, all being well. Get there about 4:50pm, do my normal long slow warm-up, then run the 7.5 laps at a steady pace.

After that I might even run the 1500m at 3000m pace. Just to see what it feels like.

I think a plan would be to run fairly slowly the first few track races in case of injury on that unforgiving surface, and builds up to “top speed” later in the season.

I am also looking forward to joining a few of my running friends at della Rocca after the first night of track.

Sunday, 1 October 2006

I ran 14k this morning, only one band-aid needed over the antiseptic so I AM ok. [How come the home, end, and delete keys are different on this keyboard? When I hit delete without looking, the cursor goes to the end of the line.] It was mild this morning with clouds rocking over, think it's going to be 26 degrees today and rain as well. So a 7am run was a good idea. Another dog this morning but it didn't attack (same kind of owner though), I tripped and failed to fall heavily; somehow; and no niggles; so perhaps October is better than September. No sign of magpies, I wonder where there are. Also hurray the Swans lost, and a one point loss is the best! If their thug forward hadn't tried to be tough and had played the ball, it would have been all different. I really like teams that play fair, like the Eagles (and the Crows of course).